Four events in the next 14 days will bring $12.8 million into Greater Des Moines, the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau said today. The events and the revenue they are expected to generate are the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, June 23-27, $4.5 million; Des Moines Arts Festival, June 25-27, $2.3 million; Gold Wing Road Riders Association Wing Ding 32, June 30-July 3, $4 million; and Goodguys Heartland Rod and Custom Nationals, July 2-4, $2 million. More than 600,000 people are expected to attend the events, the bureau said in a news release.

Des Moines was among 10 cities that received the 2010 All-America City Award from the National Civic League. The 61-year-old awards program recognizes neighborhoods, villages, towns, cities, counties and metro regions for outstanding civic accomplishments. To win, communities have to demonstrate an ability to address serious challenges with innovative, grassroots strategies that promote civic engagement and cooperation between the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Three recent civic projects were highlighted as reasons Des Moines received the award. They are the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, the Kiwanis Miracle League and the Miracle League Field near Principal Park, and the George Washington Carver Community School.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban on planting alfalfa seeds that are resistant to Monsanto Co.’s Roundup herbicide, Bloomberg reported. The 7-1 ruling shifts the focus of the environmental dispute to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which under today’s ruling now can consider allowing limited planting. That would be an interim measure while the USDA finishes an environmental impact statement that ultimately might clear the way for unrestricted planting. The justices said a federal judge in San Francisco went too far when he placed a nationwide ban on so-called Roundup-ready alfalfa seeds because of the possibility they would contaminate other plants. Farmers and environmental groups, represented by the Center for Food Safety, sued to halt use of the alfalfa seeds.

BP plc said today that the cost of its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has hit $2 billion and that it has paid out $105 million in damages to those affected by the disaster. BP added in a statement that it rejected claims by its investment partner in the oil well, Anadarko Petroleum, that it had been negligent in the way it operated the well. BP agreed last week to place $20 billion in a fund to compensate victims of the oil spill, which resulted from an explosion April 20 at BP’s Deepwater Horizon well.